IN SITU ACT Days

In light of the current health crisis, the IN SITU ACT Conference, initially scheduled for April 2020, was cancelled. Over the past months, the IN SITU team and partners have been working intensively on an alternative proposal. In the interest of the health and safety of our participants and to heed the worldwide call to limit travel and large gatherings, the "IN SITU ACT Days" will not take place in its initial format as an only on-site event, but combine both online and on-site activities.

For all online participants, an inspiring digital programme has been compiled, including many artistic interventions, thematic speeches on sustainability, audience development, research and artistic creation.

For the Brussels public, co-organised with CIFAS and Provinciaal domein Dommelof, an exciting on-site programme with performances conceived by the IN SITU artists Nick Steur, Benjamin Vandewalle, Anna Rispoli and Martina Angelotti has been put together.

Although this two-day event will look different from what we anticipated, we are looking forward to this occasion to experiment new ways to network and to exchange ideas exploring this transformed public space collectively!

Digital programme

Our digital programme provides you with an overview of the current and upcoming projects of the network and the IN SITU artists. Together, we will also look back on the network's activities in the frame of the cooperation project IN SITU ACT supported by the European Commission. 

IN SITU ACT trailer

Get prepared and take a look at our new IN SITU ACT trailer. This trailer looks back at the last four years of artistic creation in public space, filled with artistic encounters, a range of different formats, new aesthetics and trends of the supported artwork under the IN SITU ACT programme.

Keynote speech

An update on the recent and forthcoming European policy work given by Walter Zampieri, Head of Unit Culture policy and intercultural dialogue of the European Commission. 

Thematic podcasts

“Artistic Acupunctures”, a dialogue with the civil society

What is happening when you let nine artists explore nine European places, asking them to respond to social, cultural and urban local issues? In this podcast Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, author of the "Acupuncture series", gives insights on the concept of this experimental artistic research project.

Podcast by Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, researcher and writer (Spain)

How to connect art and sustainability?

While we see numerous hot-topics emerge, questioning the relationship or even the responsibility that art should have in an evolution towards an inclusive and environmental-friendly society, where do artists and organisers stand? How to foster a holistic approach that can really make a difference? In this first episode, Thomas Lamers shares his vision of "What is public space?". 

The second and final episode of this podcast will focus on sustainability in the arts, and more specifically: on how we can think constructively, in both an artistic and a practical way, about creating more sustainable arts practices.

Two part podcast by Thomas Lamers, dramaturg and philosopher from Collectief Walden (The Netherlands)

Today, at 10 am (CEST): online performance of A Certain Value by Anna Rispoli and Martina Angelotti

A series of residences were held in several European cities where the artist Anna Rispoli and the curator Martina Angelotti have met different communities. Based on the material collected during this research, they have created a reading-performance composed of many voices, a staged conversation between different communities about the possibility of sharing value today.

Live performance on Zoom on October 2nd, 10 am. Registration is mandatory. Click here to register⋅

One place - one artist

The IN SITU network had asked 5 European artists to do an artistic intervention in public space in Brussels. To adapt the proposal, IN SITU gave the artists a carte blanche, and proposed them to do an artistic intervention online, from their own country. The experimental artistic programme that has been put togehter, invites you to explore a wide spectrum of artistic creation in and for public space including an audio walk by R.M. Sánchez-Camus (United Kingdom), an audio essay conceived by Ambrus Ivanyos (Hungary), a recorded "web lecture" by Sara Leghissa (Italy) and two videos by Anna Anderegg (Switzerland) and Veronika Tzekova (Bulgaria).

Let the artists take you on a virtual journey! 

The Invisible Skin : an audio walk from inside out by R.M. Sánchez-Camus

R.M. Sánchez-Camus (UK/ Chile) Marcelo is a creative practitioner whose practice incorporates community co-authorship into installation, performance and text. His work focuses on collaboration, interaction, psychogeography, and community wellbeing.  

The Invisible Skin is an audio walk for one person to listen to on headphones in the comfort on your own home. The work is created in response to the current lock down measures due to the pandemic and invites audiences to experience a work of art and a performance in the safety of their personal spaces. The Invisible Skin explores the barriers we have both internal and external and invites us to consider our role in putting up these barriers as well as overcoming them. Public art made accessible privately.

Devised and written by R.M. Sánchez-Camus // Music composed by Michael Owcharuk // Musicians: Michael Owcharuk - keyboards, electronics, effects and programming / Kate Olson – saxophone / Jacques Willis - vibraphone / Michael Catts - electric bass / Michael Musburger – drums // Thanks to Zahra Ash-Harper 

We invite you also to visit the online space of the work and to share your experience in the walk.

Sounds of disappearing city: an audio essay by Ambrus Ivanyos

Ambrus Ivanyos is a Budapest based writer and independent theatre/filmmaker. In the past years he started experimenting with different game formats and interactive installations. He’s exploring new technologies and new narratives for theatre. 

Stop for a minute. Close your eyes. Listen. With Sounds of disappearing city, Ambrus Ivanyos invites the audience on a short journey in a city that does not exist. Or to be more precise to a city that only exists in our head. No, that's not true; to a city that could exist anywhere. The piece serves as a sort of meditation, it creates space for the listener to get a new perspective on how they see their city and themselves in it. A moment of intimacy with the voice of the artist, who's sharing his thoughts with the audience in a virtual space. For a better experience the use of headphones is highly recommended.  

Devised and written by Ambrus Ivanyos  

Will you marry me? by Sara Leghissa // Strasse

Sara Leghissa is an artist, performer and researcher based in Milano. Graduated in Contemporary history (MA) with a thesis in Social and Politic Communication, she co-founded, with F. De Isabella, the company Strasse, involved in site-specific production in the public space. 

A note from the artist

"The content of the lecture explores some illegal practices present in our daily life and how we embody the illegality itself. It comes from personal shared experiences and interviews, and it also echoes some strategies and practices already used by different people and activists from all around the world, as forms to circumvent the law without violating it. Considering the law as a fluid parameter, which changes depending on where we are in the world, the historical period in which we live and the sort of privileges we enjoy, the work invites people to relate directly with the boundaries between what is legal and what is illegal. In its live version, I wear a fake uniform to stick the text on some billboards along the street, in front of real and occasional audience members, for exploring how we can perform such actions mimetically, before everyone’s eyes, and for suggesting possible forms of public resistance and complicity. For this specific invitation at the IN SITU ACT Days, I'm proposing a new version of the lecture, adapting the content to the web space. What I'm trying to do is opening questions, considering the web itself a public space, and shifting the meaning of the text from an analogue condition to a digital one."

Concept by Sara Leghissa // Text and dramaturgy in collaboration with Carlo Fusani, Tomas Gonzalez, Catalina Insignares // Graphic layout Marzia Dalfini // Video for the web lecture created by Sara Leghissa and LeleMarcojanni // Edited by LeleMarcojanni 

Space Appropriator #6 / Safety Overturned (Пир во время чумы / A Feast in Time of Plague / Das Gelage während der Pest) · mARTini · version by Veronika Tzekova

Veronika Tzekova is a creative practitioner who employs primarily intervention and appropriation, and focuses on rethinking and transforming objects, situations and systems. 

The series of urban interventions Space Appropriators comment on modes of use and behavior in common spaces in cities. Each Space Appropriator"employs different situation in the urban fabric in order to question the status quo of variety of urban spaces and elements.Space Appropriator #6 / Safety Overturned is a performance and an act of re-purposing urban furniture (large security bollards). It took place at Sonnenfelsplatz, Graz, Austria, a “Begegnungszone" (en. „encounter zone“) - a form of traffic calming regulation, in which among others, pedestrians have right of way over vehicles. It was late summer of 2020. Times of social distancing. There are in total 11 safety bollards at Sonnenfelsplatz, which can be turned into cocktail tables, without violating the rules of social distancing. Space Appropriator #6 / Safety Overturned questions if the distance sufficient for safety reasons in worldwide pandemic situation is also sufficient for socializing and communicating in public space.

Concept by Veronika Tzekova

Digital mind by Anna Anderegg 

Anna Anderegg is a Swiss choreographer and founder of the company Asphalt Piloten. In her practice, Anderegg builds a dialogue between the human body and its habitat. 

A note from the artist

"We witness the explosion of the Internet for 30 years. Slowly functions that usually were carried out in public space shift into a digital environment and take place in a forest of blogs, channels, social media platforms. We have come to accept that our attention and personal data are the currency for our participation in this digital interweaving. But do the platforms and services properly reflect the needs of us citizens? How does our virtual connectivity influence our habits in public? The lockdowns have increased the number of digital interactions. I expected my first weeks of social distancing to feel distant, but I found myself more connected than ever. Will we take the crisis as an opportunity to rethink and reshape our digital and physical environment in accordance with our human as well as environmental needs? Or will we make an even more thorough shift into automized capitalism?As a choreographer I am interested in the correlation between habitat and body: How does my body cope with being physically distant and digitally interconnected? While my mind is wandering to various places and being present on multiple layers at once, how do my digital habits affect my bodily existence? How can I stay present? Following my desire to reunite online attention to my physical existence, I blindly wander the streets of Berlin. While my digital gazes are staring through the screen of my laptop on to the city, I try to witness my body being present."

Concept by Anna Anderegg // Cinematography  & Music by Marco Barotti // Photos & Edition by Rainer Schmid // Costumes by Antoniya Ivanova 

Live Talk Session - 9 October, at 11 am  (CEST)How to reclaim digital and physical public space? Working in public space today

Several artists working in public space share with us their practice especially in these trouble times of global pandemic and social distancing. 

What is art in public space today? What does it mean to create in public space and what is the future of public space? Shall we all go digital?

Facilitation: Mikey Martins, Artistic Director of Freedom Festival Hull (United Kingdom)Friday, 9 October, 11am (CEST)

On-site programme in BrusselsFriday and Saturday, 2nd and 3rd October 2020

FREEZE by Nick Steur (The Netherlands/Belgium) 

When he was a child Nick Steur balanced rocks on top of each other. At a crucial time in his artistic career, he rediscovered and developed this skill and created a performance with mind-boggling stone sculpturing. No glue, cement or any other trick is involved. It’s all about concentration and "finding the balance between your own force of will, and that of the stone”.

⋅ Open to all, free of charge ⋅

⋅ Friday 2nd October: 4:00 pm // Pierre Paulus park ⋅

⋅ Saturday 3rd October: 2:30 pm // Pierre Paulus park ⋅

 ⋅ Click here for all info ⋅

Studio Cité* by Benjamin Vandewalle (Belgium) 

How do you observe your environment and the people within it? And do you dare and surrender yourselves to new perspectives? Come to Studio Cité by Benjamin Vandewalle - an artistic funfair that offers unexpected experiences on Brussels’ squares! 

⋅ Open to all, free of charge ⋅

⋅ Friday October 2nd: Square Jacques Franck // 12:00 am > 7:00 pm ⋅

⋅ Saturday October 3rd: Square Jacques Franck // 12:00 am > 6:00 pm ⋅ 

⋅ Click here for all info ⋅ 

A Certain Value** by Anna Rispoli and Martina Angelotti (Italy/Belgium) 

An inspiring investigation through Europe about mutualization strategies and the ambivalent association of "value and values" conceived by the artist Anna Rispoli and the curator Martina Angelotti.

⋅ Saturday October 3rd:16:30 pm - Blanche et noire, Rue Vanderschrick 111, 1060 Brussels ⋅ 

⋅ Saturday October 3rd: 18:30 pm - Blanche et noire, Rue Vanderschrick 111, 1060 Brussels ⋅  

⋅ Click here for all info  ⋅ 

For those who cannot attend the live performances in person: here are two recordings of FREEZE and Studio Cité for you to enjoy virtually!

FREEZE by Nick Steur, hosted by Cifas, Brussels, 2019

SIGNAL - Nick Steur from CIFAS on Vimeo

Important information

You might need to register to the online events (see description above).Participation at the on-site event in Brussels is free.

COVID19 cautions: In view of the health context linked to the COVID-19 epidemic, we ask everyone present to wear a mask, to keep at least 1.50m distance from other people and to register on the spot in the register provided for this purpose.  

In partnership with CIFAS, International Centre for Training in the Performing Arts and Provinciaal domein Dommelhof. ACT 2016 - 2020 is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.  

*Studio Cité and **A Certain Value, IN SITU Pilot projects, have received a creation aid by the ACT project, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The co-producers are Atelier 231 (FR), Festival di Terni (IT), Freedom Festival (UK), La Strada Graz (AT), Lieux publics (FR), Norfolk & Norwich Festival (UK), Østfold Internasjonale Teater (NO), Oerol Festival (NL), Theater op de Markt (BE), UZ Arts (UK).